Camera systems, including cooled and uncooled thermal imaging systems, developed to date are focal plane based with 20,000 to 300,000 pixels. A small portion of these pixels may degrade during the lifetime of the system, which is a significant deficiency to the subjective image quality and a distraction to the operators of the camera system. Often, these will result in a unit being returned for repair at significant cost to either the customer or the supplier.
What is needed, therefore, are techniques to overcome this disadvantage.